I went to DragonCon this past weekend in Atlanta. Wow. It has been nigh onto 2 decades since my last one and it has changed and not changed in some remarkable ways.

First, you are not a geek. Yes, I mean you, the reader, specifically. You might think yourself a geek. You’re not. You aren’t even close. I saw people that were geeky to a degree that I had only thought was hypothetical. I’ve heard of a theory that states that if one’s enthusiasm for medieval garb and slavish fandom towards aliens with wrinkly foreheads is so great that his/her interpersonal and societal skills stopped completely, they would achieve absolute geek.

It’s not hypothetical anymore. I’ve seen it. It ain’t pretty.

I’m not saying that talking loudly, closely and quickly with somewhat iffy personal hygiene makes one a SciFi/Fantasy fan, or even vice versa. There is a correlation though. Definitely.

Second, there is way more overlap from SciFi/Fantasy fandom into BDSM than people tend to think. Lots more. I don’t care what shows/comics/whatever you are a fan of, wearing a leather corset and a cat o’ nine tails into public is what it is. And you know what it is. Oh, and let’s not forget the transvestites. Let’s never forget the transvestites.

Third, being a slavish fan of anything is gonna cost you hella ducats. There is a certain cynicism in creating a bit of work in order to drive up demand, then creating an artificial lack of supply in order to pressure the prices upwards. I see them do it in card based games all the time and I find the practice abhorrent. Sell your little cards to the nerds at a fair price and print enough for everybody. You’re just being mean. And greedy.

Fourth, Dragoncon is BIG. No, I mean BIG. It was in the Hilton, Marriot and Hyatt for christsakes. Simultaneously.

On a personal note I would like to send a bit of a warning to all the people that want to go watch midgets wrestle: Five healthy shots of Jagermeister on an empty stomach is a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad idea. Don’t ask me how I know, just trust me.

And never take a dude who wears red panties with you to one of these conventions. Don’t ask about that one either.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 4th, 2006 at 8:16 pm and is filed under life, miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.